Can celebrity-led enterprise support services reach out and overcome the cynical “no one can tell me anything” attitude, which often means that most UK entrepreneurs or business owners never bother to contact or interact with enterprise support providers?
Tim Campbell, Founder of the Bright Ideas Trust
Sometimes I look enviously on the experience of enterprise support providers in American and Australia where demand for enterprise support services is higher and where self-help business books sell as well as books on cookery or gardening. In the UK, enterprise support service providers regularly suffer from “adverse selection” – the reality that demand for services (especially at start up stage) are often from those that are hardest to help and least likely to succeed. This could be a big problem for enterprise support providers if government funding bodies change their strategies to focus future programmes on supporting new and trading businesses who can create jobs for the millions people who are unemployed.
So can celebrity business people (i.e. entrepreneurs who have been on telly or entrepreneurs who started or run well-known companies) help our sector to reach out and engage with a wider cross section of entrepreneurs? Can celebrities make them listen to what we have to offer? We are about to see, for this month Capital Enterprise will launch (with its members and funds from the local council) its first enterprise fair (www.enterprisefair.com) in Islington on the 18th March.
Nick Jenkins, Founder of Moonpig.com
The unique feature of the Islington Enterprise Fair is that involves a series of Q & A panels with well-known celebrity entrepreneurs such as former apprentice winner Tim Campbell, founder of Moonpig, Nick Jenkins, and local big wig Jack Lyon whose family run the Business Design Centre. The fairs also have exhibition stands and workshops where local Capital Enterprise members such as Pre-vista, London Met University and Centa can promote their services and provide advice. But the key feature of the day is the opportunity for local business people to listen to the first hand “war stories” of successful entrepreneurs and get them to spill their “secrets”.
In the USA there seems to be a shared view that “insider knowledge” (i.e. secrets) is the key to success. If you know what the successful know, you too could be successful in business as in life. We are about to see whether it holds true for the London Entrepreneur.
Finally, if you or anyone else you know wants to get an “insider view” on how to raise money, how to bootstrap your first venture, how to convince major buyers to take the risk on you or anything else related to making your business successful, then please get them to check out www.islingtonenterprisefair.com
(It’s important to note that if we do get a good turnout we hope to repeat the programme across London.)
